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Two brothers have been convicted in the Nelson District court
after a night raid in Kaikoura found them in possession of sacks
of paua.
Day Van Tang admitted a charge of poaching paua, and Hanh
Tang admitted illegal possession of paua and was fined $2000.
Early last year fisheries officers received information about
Day Van Tang illegally taking paua from the Kaikoura coast
during the night. He would drive to a secluded spot along the
coast known as Black Miller, at low tide when the paua could be
found and levered off rocks by feel in knee-high water.
During the night of July 3 last year, Day Van Tang, who has
already been imprisoned for stealing paua, and his brother
Hanh, drove from Nelson to Kaikoura. Some of the paua
they gathered was shucked at the water's edge but, in total,
two sacks were carried to the road and concealed in long
grass. Day Van Tang retrieved the sacks and the brothers left
the area.
Fisheries officers stopped Day Van Tang a short time later and
seized from the boot of the car the two sacks of paua, a knife,
and a screwdriver. The sacks contained a total of 139 paua, 115
of which were undersized.
Rules state the maximum number of paua that each of the
brothers could have taken on any one day is 10. The minimum
length of the shellfish that can be taken is 125mm.
Fisheries officers also recovered 13 freshly shucked shells
from the tidal area where Day Van Tang had been shucking paua.
He admitted that he and his brother had taken the shellfish
found in the car, but denied knowing what paua was, and
considered them "whelks". He later admitted that he knew they
were paua, and that he had gone to Kaikoura specifically to take
them. He also knew the daily limit, and that he had not measured
any of the paua taken.
In answer to a question from Judge Tony Zohrab about why
the pair had taken undersized paua, defence lawyer David
Holloway said he supposed it might have been difficult for
them to detect the size of the shellfish because they were taken
at night.
Holloway also said it was perhaps a naive explanation, but
they had taken so many because of the distance travelled that
required time off work. He said the paua were taken for them to
eat and not to sell.
Judge Zohrab said the pair knew what they were doing was
illegal and that New Zealand's "very large foreshore" made such
offending difficult to detect.
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ILLEGAL POSSESSION OF PAUA
Raymond Wayne Major, was sentenced in the Rotorua District
Court to 200 hours' community work after previously pleading
guilty to two charges of selling paua taken without a current
fishing permit.
The Rotorua man sold illegal paua from a Facebook page. He
was also ordered to forfeit items of his dive gear.
An undercover Ministry for Primary Industries officer replied
to a Facebook post and on February 17 they met in the Pak 'n'
Save carpark where he paid Major $100 for 40 paua. Five days
later saw Major meeting and selling the officer another 20 paua
for $50.
Major told Judge John Macdonald it had been his daughter's
birthday and he didn't have enough money to pay for it. He
said at the time he didn't realise the seriousness of his actions,
but now knew it was wrong. The judge accepted there had
been a certain amount of ignorance and Major's offending
was unsophisticated.
www.skipper.co.nz
VIP.S93
UNSOPHISTICATED OFFENDING
September/October 2013 Professional Skipper 77
